After staying at the Drakensburg hostel for four nights, we were definitely ready to leave the place and were sick of some of the corrupt management staff. We met a couple from our hostel that had intended to head on the Lesotho tour, but similar to us, they cancelled due to the poor organization and late start. They were also kind of p’d off at the hostel we had been with and decided not to give them any more money...so they hitched a ride with us to Pietermaritzburg. They were great to have with us, but it made our miniature vehicle a little over stuffed...too many people not to mention that the trunk is only large enough to hold two knapsacks.
Despite being cramped this couple had traveled all of the countries we were destined to head to and so we were able to extract a lot of very valuable information from them.
#9) Although this is not directly about SA or it’s people, one great thing about discussing travel plans with people at the hostels is that most of them have traveled all of the country or at least countries or places you are headed. Not everyone is the same and may like different things, but you can get invaluable information just by opening your mouth and making an effort to talk...and most are more than willing to talk because it is kind of like bragging to talk all about the places you have been. Come on it is so true – isn’t it?!?
Like always, we are planning out our next destination on the road. The GPS is great for this because when we are torn between numerous places, we just type there name in the GPS and find out the estimated time of arrival. We were stuck between Coffee Bay and Port St. John’s. We knew that we had to exit from the highway an hour or so before dark because the roads off the highway were supposed to be bad. (Okay side note - the Wild Coast is named as it is because during the Apartheid era, this area of SA was destined as the ‘homelands’ (second side note – the homelands were the areas where the black people were forced to relocate to unless you had work accommodations within the other territories) and remained very rural because of this fact.) The roads to the Coast in this area look like a comb. There is one major highway running North East to South West and there are roads running perpendicular to the coast to access each town (mentioned this earlier). The main highway is good but the perpendicular roads are in rough shape....really rough shape. So after looking at the GPs we decided that Coffee Bay was out of our reach and so we headed to Port St. John’s.
Well that was not a bad thing. Coast to Coast and Alternative Route (backpackers’s bibles in SA) both highly regarded this area and a couple of great hostels. We exited the main highway and weren’t sure how bad the roads were going to be. About thirty kilometres onto the perp road down to the coast things got interesting. The potholes started increasing in size and multiplying like rabbits. If that wasn’t bad enough, the shoulder disappeared and resembled what an ant would call a cliff (about eight inches in some places). Well the cliffs weren’t that forgiving to the midget car. Somehow one of the wheels managed to get a little close to the shoulder...things happened so fast we are not sure what went on. Because of the rather ridiculous size of the wheels it was not possible to pull the car back onto the road. So here we are, driving along a major highway (or at least enough traffic for Saskatchewan standards to be called one) with two wheels on the pavement and the other two wheels in the ditch (I have to note that Katie was doing a pretty admirable job driving at this point despite her high stress levels) and could hear the rims just smacking pavement as we tried to pull back up. We stopped the car and you could just tell something was wrong. Well sure enough, the tire was off the rim and we were right beside a rural village. To tell the truth, we were a little scared. However, another spurt of good luck came about. Although, a number of bystanders were laughing at what they had just witnessed, a very nice group of locals (four) came over and immediately asked us if we had a spare. Without even asking, they grabbed the jack grabbed the spare tire and went to work. Within ten minutes the new tire was on and we were back on the road. Although, we had felt scared at first, these locals (probably 22-26 years of age) had made us feel so comfortable and we were overtaken by feelings of joy because things could have been much different...or at least we had envisioned so in our minds. We tipped them 200 rands (about 30 Canadian dollars) which also increased our joy as we witnessed their happiness with what we thought was a well deserved tip.
The roads did not get any better from there but the scenery sure did. Wow!!!!!!! All of our talk about how nice the country is nothing compared to this place. There is no place that I have ever seen that is quite like it here. In addition, the villages here seem much better kept. Each house has its own farm and the buildings are not dilapidated but well standing. We felt much safer here despite the warnings of crime. We felt so blessed of our surroundings that we even stopped along the highway and snagged a few pictures of the villages in the mass of hills and valleys. It truly is as they say ‘rural Africa’. We were even happier when we arrived at our destination and were greeted by a very relaxed Rastafarian who showed us the grounds. We inquired about the sights of the area with our new found knowledge (the ‘knowledge’ is explained in the next tip).
#10) This tip comes from experience. When you arrive at a place it is always best to get every detail down to the last point. Now this might sound anal but after our incidents at our last hostel (mainly fine details about prices) we were not interested in having to pay more than we had originally been informed. At Drakensburg we had been so excited about what we could do that we did not pry enough into how the prices worked. Well, we thought we had but there was all these hidden details that could not be seen without looking really hard. Example 1 they told us that we would only pay 440 Rands for all of our tours if we did enough of them, but in the end, the prices were not what we had been told. And supposedly, we did not ‘do enough’ and the prices had recently ‘been increased’. So when looking for tours it is almost better to sort out and PAY your bills first and do the tours second. That way they can’t get more money out of you after.
Anyways we were told that we could spend a days with one of the locals in his village. It sounded simple and so we signed up.
We headed to the bar to get a Savannah Dry (one of the best Ciders and a local South African favourite) and enjoyed a meal on Valentine’s Day (Happy Belated Saint Valentine’s day to all of you (pronounced Sant Valen-in teen by our French neighbours)). We were also fortunate to see some South African drumming accompanied by three young girls doing Khosa (pronounced with a clicking noise – very difficult) hip hop style dancing. They had invited any one up for lessons and I prodded Katie to go but she was not interested...BUT, by chance, we had spoken with the drummer earlier and therefore he knew us a tinsy bit and so he literally dragged Katie on stage to imitate what the girl named Africa (Afree-kah) was doing. Then to my surprise after she had finished he dragged me on stage to dance with an eight year old named Jessieto (Jesse 2) . It was a lot of fun but really really hard and tiring in the heat. We can show you the videos later if you want.
The next morning we went on our village tour. Our guide JJ drove us part of the way to his village of Pondu people (Khosa speaking) where we continued on foot. Our parking spot was right in front of a beach and we began our village journey from the most beautiful deserted beach. The only creatures using the beach was a herd of cattle. The apparently smart creatures head to the beach after feeding to escape the ticks and heat. When really hot, they venture into the ocean which also helps to remove the ticks. We didn’t believe it but they will stay there all day. These photos of the cows on the beach are one of our favourites!
We hiked up a small mountain (okay hill) and walked into the Pondu village, where the hillsides were littered with small cottages with no running water and electricity. We made our way to the farthest point of the village to the guide’s home to discover that he had the best plot of land in the village (hillside home overlooking the jungle and beach). We were treated with fresh mussels (literally picked from the water ten minutes earlier) and the best beans mixture ever! While waiting for our meals, we had ventured around and discovered that the villagers truly have very few material possessions. However, this does not seem to bother them at all as they were very pleasant and free spirited people. After enjoying JJ and his mothers company, we purchased a dozen corn, pumpkin leaves?? and half a pumpkin and headed on our way to meet his brother a Sanjoma (medicine man who earned this title because he was very sick when he was young and the only way to cure him was to devote his life to the same type of medicine that had healed him). We spent nearly two hours in the hut drinking beer with Zulu (name of the Sanjoma) and two other locals. It was quite a neat experience and for our thousand questions, we traded a packet of Gaviscon, two rounds of beers and my engineering ring (gift to Sanjoma) which miraculously fit his finger (don’t think I have to worry about any lawsuits as I don’t think he will take to practicing any engineering). We also tried a brew of Maize beer named something I couldn’t pronounce let alone spell but for a guess kumbota (clicking noise at the ota part) – Katie found it disgusting and let’s just say I wouldn’t order it in a restaurant if I had the opportunity again!
We left the village full and headed to a local mud cave with JJ where he preceded to cover our faces with a healing mud dug by people who had traveled far distances for the medicinal purposes of the clay and water which rises from the ground. This was something that was NOT in the travel books. Not only did we get covered in mud, we also got to taste some of the water rising from the ground (definitely not recommended in any travel book or Canadian Health Guide but we did it) and soaked our feet for a in healing waters. The water smelt like rotten eggs and tasted salty and might have been connected to the water where we soaked our feet???
From the Sinoko mud cave we took JJ home (or his second home when working in town) and got the closest we have ever been to a township while feeling one hundred and twenty percent safe – we sat in admiration at how nice the people were to two tourists with faces covered in mud (wow did we look ridiculous but people just understood). The day was different...but great and JJ truly appreciated the tips we dolled out to his family and himself and so he offered to take us free of charge to a lookout point over Port St. John’s the following morning.
It is interesting to note that as I (Jeremy) am writing this, there is a very intoxicated East Indian man from Durban who approached me preaching about his conversion from Hinduism to Christianity while wearing nothing more than underwear that looked like a Speedo and then continued to tell me he has visions and that I (me) had a problem with my shoulder in the past. He continued to tell me that I am a self contained individual who will have something come back to me which is good. This led into his journey with God to visit the devil and how Nelson Mandela really wasn’t a good leader and that I should not visit King Tutankhamen’s tomb in Egypt. I am not mocking this man but thought it was interesting and that people should know these are the great and interesting people that you get to meet while in Backpacker’s accommodations. Not to mention the French couple who just went for their evening skinny dip in a foot deep pool of green water just a corner away from where I am. Crazy but loving it.
From Port St Johns, we headed to Coffee Bay but first had plans to stop in the city of Mtatha to check out the Nelson Mandela Museum (which was incredibly informative!) and also replace our flat spare tire. Apparently, no one in SA carries Good Year tires except AVIS so we ended up having to come clean at AVIS and buy a new tire from them (it cost slightly more than ~700 Rands - i.e. $100 for a basketball tire) but they actually switched our vehicles for us. So, instead of our silver color, we are now sporting a red Atos (I (Katie) think they only did this because when they looked at the vehicle, they noticed the high kilometres and immediately said, “Needs Maintenance”. The manager on duty at AVIS was awesome and we asked him how he likes Mtathta – he doesn’t. Since he moved here from Durban 3 years ago, he has been robbed two times (and he doesn’t have insurance) and once so bad that him and his wife were actually tied up for over 2 hours while the intruders stole everything his family ever owned – I asked him what has changed since it has now been a year since his last break in and he informed me that it is his two Siberian Dogs that you basically don’t want to mess with.
Tip 11) SA roads are sooo horrible! Jeremy and I joke that on the really bad ones, the bribes for the `passing` compaction tests are at their highest. Potholes are a very common thing and at our last hostel, we met a French couple (whom were quite arrogant and repeatedly told us that Canada only consisted of Quebec which therefore meant that for the rest of us, we are nothing but pompous Americans – Hmm...who knew huh?!?) who had blown their tire as a result of a really bad and deep pot hole. On the roads that get a lot of truck traffic, the road ahead always reminds us of a continuous sin wave – I don’t know if it is best to go really fast over the `wave` and try and miss as many bumps as possible or go really slow but then probably screw our shocks and suspensions – these are questions we are always faced with day in and day out. Our favourite roads to drive are the ones that have a `T` on the signs, this means they are tolls, and although you have to pay to use them (ranges from 30 Rands to 120 Rands) they are usually double lane and are the most beautiful and carefree roads (free of potholes but not of animals and people).
Going back to our story – the spare tire was essential for our trip to Coffee Bay as the roads are notorious for potholes. Potholes were definitely an understatement – we had 50km to drive and we arrived 1 hour and 45 minutes later – I don’t think I need to explain any more than this. We are trying to figure out how to post our videos and if we do, we have filmed some of this section of road and all I can say is you need to watch it. Seriously, every car in either direction is utilizing the entire road (even ditches) driving no more than 20km/hr (with the exception of the crazy mini busses that fly past you). Jeremy was driving at this point (my self confidence was still blown from the last incident with the popped tire) and we joked that he was playing a video game because all he was doing was swerving (although he did do an excellent job of swerving). Diana (and Colin), I think if you moved to SA, you would be set for life with your road restoration knowledge – the sad thing is, if they don’t fix these roads before June 2010 for the World Cup, what are the chances that they would ever fix them again - ???
We arrived in Coffee Bay and quickly got settled in; our hostel was the cheapest we have stayed in yet (200 Rands) but after heading to the kitchen to cook supper, we quickly discovered why. The kitchen was disgusting and had a small fridge complete with one (cold water only) leaky tap. No one around us must have had mothers that taught them to clean up after themselves (so thanks to our moms and dads!!!) as there were dishes and perishable food items rotting everywhere. Despite this bomb field in the kitchen, we still managed to cook; we just made sure that we cooked enough to have lots of leftovers. The next day, we signed up with the hostel for a hike to the infamous ``Hole in the Wall``. There were 6 of us in total: a German and SA native couple named Thomas and Lee, a German girl named Ma Dina, our SA native guide named `Lucky` Luke and Jeremy and I. Our guide informed us that we would be back in no time (i.e. back no later than 3:30pm). We left at 11am, so you can understand our surprise when we arrived at the hole at 2:30, a mere 3 1/2 hours later. By the time that we had taken pictures and swam in the ocean, our tummy`s were grumbling – no one other than Ma Dina packed snacks for the road. So, we stopped for a quick bite to eat of Fish n Chips (but it was not quick...in fact, I think they were on Mexico time) and made our long trek back home at 4pm. We walked a different route back to our hostel (along the village roads) but after an hour ++ of walking in our wet clothes (no one thought to bring a bathing suit) we hitched a ride with an American – YAH!! This leads to tip No. 12. But before that I should say that the hole in the hole was very neat. It was as if a donut shaped mountain (half eaten) had fallen from the sky and landed in the middle of the ocean. It was only a pity that we couldn`t get closer to it as the waters were surely infested with sharks (jk but I think there are sharks everywhere in these waters).
12) No one in SA really knows anything about Canada. They know that it is really far away and that it is very very cold but we are generalized as American`s. Lee repeatedly asked us if Canada was part of the United States...we laughed and told her that no, we are (despite some really naive French people) our own Country and she couldn’t believe this. She then went on to ask that although we may be different countries, we still share Barrack Obama – right? We thought we had set her straight but the following day she asked us again if we were part of the US – haha...I guess a lost cause, but in her defence (and SA`s defence) we really do not know a great deal about their tribes and their history etc. (unless your name is Adam Heisler).
We arrived at our hostel just after 6pm and Jeremy and I headed across the road to a store called ``AFFRITUDE``. We loved, LOVED their product and bought a couple of pre made t-shirts and then got a few of our own t-shirts with their own decals painted/died on to them – very cool experience to see. An hour later, we parted ways...but not before we snapped some photos to remember this place.
We ate our leftovers with our new found friends from the day`s hike (they purchased their meals from the hostel kitchen as they were not up for cooking in the kitchen – hmm...go figure!) and swapped information about our SA experiences. The hostel actually was featuring live entertainment – dancing and singing. The young girls were performing traditional Khosa Dancing topless and with miniskirts (which can only be done if the girls are virgins). The manager at the hostel informed us that this is a great way to help reduce the spread of HIV as it encourages the young girls to be active in their culture and not encourage pre marital sex.
This dancing was followed by the `BOMVO (pronounced BOM-VU) Tribal Rythm Group` consisting of the owner and other workers and was a mixture of classical African drumming, acoustic guitar and reggae.
Our new friends convinced us to stay for YOGA on the beach the following morning – I was very reluctant but thought what better time to try YOGA then on a beach in South Africa. After ten minutes, I confirmed my opinion that Yoga is not my forte. Our instructor was also a little crazy – she was telling us to `make love` to the earth and at one point, she even used the word `hump` - haha!! She finished off her session by showing off her moves...so then I showed off some of mine too – I mean really, no one is going to tell us not to try and to do what she is doing, especially when I am an ex-gymnast.
We parted ways with our new found friends but first swapped last names with each other so we could remain friends through facebook and email. Jeremy got behind the wheel and we headed to Port Elizabeth...but first we had to get out of pot hole country.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Unexpected Plans in Some of the Oldest Mountains
After a night with Mervin and Jane Wallace, our plans were yet again changed. We had originally hoped to visit the Wild Coast but were told by the Wallace’s that this would really eat up our time because to access the towns, we would have to drive perpendicular to the main highway and then come back up to the highway to head to the next town. We were also told that the roads to these towns were not maintained. So, we took their advice and headed to the Drakensburg Mountain Ranges, which is supposed to be the oldest, or one of the oldest, mountain ranges in the world.
We had no idea where to stay and again, we were given way too many options (we have learned that Katie and I can be very indecisive at times). We made our way towards Durban and we were going to stop at a couple of markets but when we drove by them, it didn’t look too inviting...so we just kept on driving. Our next stop was Pietermaritzburg, which we were told was a nice `College City`. We didn’t spend a great deal of time here but we did get to see the Gandhi statue, several of the civil war memorial statues and a very strange art museum (mainly of the Heath family). We also learned that we could book our accommodations for Drakensburg in this town so we headed to a reservation agency where a very nice man helped us to plan our stay. Our plans changed about twenty times but after talking to the woman at the hostel in the North Drakensburg area, we decided that instead of splitting what little time between the South, Central and North Drakensburg, we were just going to kick it in one spot...and this seemed like the ideal place to do it.
So we didn’t stop very long in Pietermaritzburg either but even though we didn’t spend the night we thoroughly enjoyed the breathtaking views of this lovely place. It has been one of the nicest, cleanest and friendliest cities that we have had the opportunity to see so far.
While in South Africa, one of the greatest experiences we have had so far is the opportunity to rent a car. This has allowed us to drive at our own pace, stop anywhere and everywhere we feel like it and (because of the great distances we have and will be traveling) witness the dramatic changes in topography, landscape and wildlife. It is amazing how much the view can change each hour as we head from East to West and North to South. It was also very nice that we made our destination without getting lost...we must be getting the hang of the transportation system here...or maybe it is just the GPS??? We know it doesn’t seem like a backpackers thing to own, but we figured that it was better to spend our time enjoying each place (and each other) rather than driving around with that lost expression plastered all over our faces.
When we got to our hostel in Drakensburg we were so excited (like kids in a candy store) about all of the things we could do. We had been told by the service person at the national park office in Pietermaritzburg that we could hike the entire mountain range in 4-5 days? This seemed a little bit strange/short but maybe it was our naivety because we believed him and were set on doing that. However, the owner instructed us that it would take us nearly three weeks to do the journey and would be utterly crazy if we were not experienced hikers. So after getting back on the right page, we decided that the day packages were probably our best bet. We signed up for a day hike to the amphitheatre mountain top/Talega waterfall (second highest waterfall in the world), a hike to the Cathedral Peak, a day of rock climbing and a day and overnight visit to Lesotho. I will come to the details later but unfortunately we couldn’t do it all (poor planning on our part and information from the guides).
After checking in we walked around and got acquainted with the nicest hostel we have been to yet. The site is surrounded by the mountain ranges and open lands with rolling foothills. The atmosphere of the place is very lively and all of the buildings are neatly built huts. The staff was so friendly (minus a few key managment players) and were very welcoming to questions (which those who know me (Jeremy) understand I can have a lot!) and the accommodations were very clean.
The first morning came with great anticipation as we had no idea what to expect. Once everyone was ready and the time had come we jumped into our mini bus.
#7) Now for those that do not know, a minibus is what the South Africans call a taxi. If you haven’t guessed already, the reason they call it a mini bus is because it is a miniature bus that can hold 15+1 (not sure why they don’t just say 16 people on the sign) people. In all of our time here, I don’t think I have seen a normal or ‘North American’ style taxi cab, they just do not exist here. Although many of the locals have heard they are safe, we have also been recommended by others not to use them. Because most of the people are very kind here it is probably not so much the people that you would have to be worried about, but more so the driving. After driving behind many of them you can easily see why. Although the back of the vehicle has a sign that says this vehicle should not travel faster than 100km/hr, they almost never drive under 120. Being a taxi, they have to stop and either drop off or pick up people on the side of the road and highways and do so very quickly. We have been told that sometimes you may hear on the radio that 30 people died in a two vehicle collision. Now this may be morbid to joke about, but after seeing how many people (beyond 15+1) that they pile into these things, you can totally understand how the numbers work out. This however, leads to our next point.
#8) When driving on the highway you must be very aware of the people behind you. This is not because they will be upset with you but because they will pass you no matter the traffic situation. This could easily lead to four cars sharing the two lanes if the same is happening on the either side of the road. Therefore, the custom is that if you are the slower vehicle, you should pull over onto the shoulder (only in places big enough) and allow the vehicle behind you to drive straight on through. We soon discovered that this action is followed by a single push of the emergency lights as a thank you. The driver who allowed them to pass is to do the same to acknowledge the thank you and say you are welcome. Now the ‘thank you’ or the ‘your welcome’ is not always an emergency flasher but is sometimes a wave, a honk or a flash of the lights. Although this system may seem dangerous, it would be great if the drivers of Saskatchewan adapted this form of communication as it really has brightened our driving days – Katie and I love to drive just so we can ‘car talk’ with everyone around us.
The first day hike was more about getting to the top of the peak so we were driven to a point which allowed us to reach the top of the mountain in one day. This meant that we had to drive for two hours in the minibus (no AC and 12 people makes for a great deal of heat especially when it is +35 (or greater) outside). The initial part of the hike was quite easy and it was great because we got to enjoy the mountainscape around us. After one difficult gorge we made it to the top to unfortunately be met by cloud cover and a great deal of lighting and thunder. Although, we were supposed to eat our lunch up there, we could not stop and sit for fear of getting struck by lightning - this may seem a little farfetched, but trust me, it does happen and one of our guides is a witness (thank god we are shorter than most other people). Tourists die on these mountain ranges every year, the main cause is being struck by lightning, the second is from walking off of the cliffs due to poor visibility from the clouds and the fog and the third is from venomous snake bites (yep...we had to watch our foot work everywhere for fear of stepping on one of these creatures). This was doubly disappointing because not only did we not get to eat our lunch, but at the top of the gorge we should have been enjoying a panoramic view of the amphitheatre rather than struggling to see ten feet in front of us. Luckily the hike to the waterfalls was short and by that time, the clouds had cleared enough for us to get a good view.
The second day was a lot different!!! We already knew that it was going to be harder because everyone informed us that it would be, but usually with a slight shrug that meant no big deal – right...wrong! The drive was only half as long as before, but we had to leave two hours earlier which should have been our first indication that this was not going to be an easy ride. Not to mention there was only three people on this tour whereas the other had twelve and that tour runs daily. We asked our guide how many times she had climbed this mountain and she told us that she had only done this trip 11 times in the 8 years that she had been working for the company – All we could think of was holy s**t!
The total distance was 19.5 km with only about half a km on flat ground (and not to mention that a good deal of it was quite vertical). After about five minutes even the guide was huffing along with the rest of us. It didn’t help that it was again over 40 degrees outside. The only one who wasn’t huffing was the almost 48 year old German named Andre who we didn’t think we were going to like very much at the beginning. However, everyone on the trip turned out to be great. We even picked up a straggler along the way who had actually stayed at the hostel the night before and was just out to see if he could tag along with a group to the peak. Smart man not paying the 1050 or 530 Rands it cost (depending on how many other trips you took) and still getting a guide to the peak which was definitely required.
After much painful hiking (for those not fit) we made it through to nearly the peak to fear that we were going to be skunked out by lightning. Our disappointment was not going to get in our way, especially the avid hiker Andre who was determined to get to the top despite the threats that it was not safe from the guide. Even us ‘non hikers’ were sceptical of the advice to stop because of how close we were and how hard it had been to get there. I think if we would have had to stop Andre would have just ran up the peak anyways. I mean this guy had hiked probably most of the mountains on all of the continents and you could tell because at one point he lapped us by running back down Bugger’s gully (named that because it is a bugger to climb) to grab our guides bag to help her up. I could not have imagined climbing down that voluntarily and then heading back up.
Anyways the one blue patch of sky above us turned out to be kind to us and we continued the rest of the way up. It was easy to see once we got close how dangerous the rain would have been to us had we made it to the top before it had hit. It would have been the difference between going down and spending a night on the highest free standing peak in the Drakensburg (3050m above sea level-check that because I swear the guide gave us different numbers). Even the rain from the night before made it difficult because the water was still seeping out of the earth and wetting the near vertical rocks. Although, Andre had made it without the use of the rope and chose the most dangerous paths, the rest of the group voted to use the rocks because it was impossible to find hand holds. We still had to climb it, but the rope was a nice security. The top was the craziest part because all you could see around you was shear rock faces and the butt of the person in front of you. But we made it (a mere 6 ½ hours later) and the view from the top was worth every struggle. The view was unobstructed for 360 degrees and it was here that we ate our lunch and had just a few minutes to snap some pictures.
In order to get back down the mountain safely, we had to leave quickly - it was pretty hard to imagine that we now had to head down after working so hard to get up. Although gravity was in our favour, the vertical incline was not, and I think everyone’s knees were killing them by the time we made it to the bottom. And stopping along the way was not easy because it was much too hard to get the engine going again. I think that was the one and only time I have ever felt my legs shaking while standing still. I know that Katie and the rest of the group felt exactly the same way...with the exception of Andre. We finished the night off with a beer as the group had bonded quite a lot on the climb. Our guide Z (first black woman to climb Cathedral peak - it might sound untrue but as she put it, native South Africans don’t climb for fun and the certainly don’t pay someone to climb for ‘fun’), Terrence (our second in command and Z’s boyfriend), Andre (the crazy German or the ‘robot’ as we called him), Louise (the straggler) and of course Katie and myself made it a great and unforgettable day.
Once we got home there was only one thing to do...okay well two...but after cancelling our rock climbing adventure on the account of much needed rest, we had to sleep and sleep we did!
The only thing there is to say about our adventures for the following day is Aleve, Band-Aids (Katie had blisters all over here feet) and rest!!! We did get to see a little bit of traditional Zulu dancing accompanied by great Zulu singing and acoustic guitar.
Originally, we had been booked to stay overnight in Lesotho (pronounced le-sootoo) which we were very excited for. However, it turns out that the owners of the hostel had misinformed us and that the stay at Lesotho would be two days because the hostel only entered the village every second day. This meant that we would have to spend two nights in the village. This would have been great and we would have learned a great deal about rural African culture however this would not work with our timeline (although it is pretty slack). So we discussed with one of the upper management and it came about that we could take our own vehicle behind the tour and then stay the night and take a taxi the next day, so we were set! BUT...we ran into a couple who had done the day tour earlier that week and told us that the road was so bad that all 15 passengers in the bus had to get out at some points and push the bus up the hills. So that kyboshed our plans to stay the night so we decided to just go with a day tour.
So we awoke the next day excited to visit Lesotho especially because it is one of the most untouched and beautiful areas of South Africa...or so we had been told. However, the morning started off badly. We were to leave on the tour at 8 am sharp but the minibus didn’t show up. At around nine thirty we all began discussing how much money it was going to cost for less than three hours in Lesotho. The drive to the village was two hours and we would have to be back at the border by 4 leaving little to no time in the village and it was going to cost 440 Rands a person. So our group of ten dwindled to three because everyone cancelled. We altered our plans (yet again) and decided that we would head down to the Wild ‘Wild’ Coast – YEHAAWWW!!!!!
We had no idea where to stay and again, we were given way too many options (we have learned that Katie and I can be very indecisive at times). We made our way towards Durban and we were going to stop at a couple of markets but when we drove by them, it didn’t look too inviting...so we just kept on driving. Our next stop was Pietermaritzburg, which we were told was a nice `College City`. We didn’t spend a great deal of time here but we did get to see the Gandhi statue, several of the civil war memorial statues and a very strange art museum (mainly of the Heath family). We also learned that we could book our accommodations for Drakensburg in this town so we headed to a reservation agency where a very nice man helped us to plan our stay. Our plans changed about twenty times but after talking to the woman at the hostel in the North Drakensburg area, we decided that instead of splitting what little time between the South, Central and North Drakensburg, we were just going to kick it in one spot...and this seemed like the ideal place to do it.
So we didn’t stop very long in Pietermaritzburg either but even though we didn’t spend the night we thoroughly enjoyed the breathtaking views of this lovely place. It has been one of the nicest, cleanest and friendliest cities that we have had the opportunity to see so far.
While in South Africa, one of the greatest experiences we have had so far is the opportunity to rent a car. This has allowed us to drive at our own pace, stop anywhere and everywhere we feel like it and (because of the great distances we have and will be traveling) witness the dramatic changes in topography, landscape and wildlife. It is amazing how much the view can change each hour as we head from East to West and North to South. It was also very nice that we made our destination without getting lost...we must be getting the hang of the transportation system here...or maybe it is just the GPS??? We know it doesn’t seem like a backpackers thing to own, but we figured that it was better to spend our time enjoying each place (and each other) rather than driving around with that lost expression plastered all over our faces.
When we got to our hostel in Drakensburg we were so excited (like kids in a candy store) about all of the things we could do. We had been told by the service person at the national park office in Pietermaritzburg that we could hike the entire mountain range in 4-5 days? This seemed a little bit strange/short but maybe it was our naivety because we believed him and were set on doing that. However, the owner instructed us that it would take us nearly three weeks to do the journey and would be utterly crazy if we were not experienced hikers. So after getting back on the right page, we decided that the day packages were probably our best bet. We signed up for a day hike to the amphitheatre mountain top/Talega waterfall (second highest waterfall in the world), a hike to the Cathedral Peak, a day of rock climbing and a day and overnight visit to Lesotho. I will come to the details later but unfortunately we couldn’t do it all (poor planning on our part and information from the guides).
After checking in we walked around and got acquainted with the nicest hostel we have been to yet. The site is surrounded by the mountain ranges and open lands with rolling foothills. The atmosphere of the place is very lively and all of the buildings are neatly built huts. The staff was so friendly (minus a few key managment players) and were very welcoming to questions (which those who know me (Jeremy) understand I can have a lot!) and the accommodations were very clean.
The first morning came with great anticipation as we had no idea what to expect. Once everyone was ready and the time had come we jumped into our mini bus.
#7) Now for those that do not know, a minibus is what the South Africans call a taxi. If you haven’t guessed already, the reason they call it a mini bus is because it is a miniature bus that can hold 15+1 (not sure why they don’t just say 16 people on the sign) people. In all of our time here, I don’t think I have seen a normal or ‘North American’ style taxi cab, they just do not exist here. Although many of the locals have heard they are safe, we have also been recommended by others not to use them. Because most of the people are very kind here it is probably not so much the people that you would have to be worried about, but more so the driving. After driving behind many of them you can easily see why. Although the back of the vehicle has a sign that says this vehicle should not travel faster than 100km/hr, they almost never drive under 120. Being a taxi, they have to stop and either drop off or pick up people on the side of the road and highways and do so very quickly. We have been told that sometimes you may hear on the radio that 30 people died in a two vehicle collision. Now this may be morbid to joke about, but after seeing how many people (beyond 15+1) that they pile into these things, you can totally understand how the numbers work out. This however, leads to our next point.
#8) When driving on the highway you must be very aware of the people behind you. This is not because they will be upset with you but because they will pass you no matter the traffic situation. This could easily lead to four cars sharing the two lanes if the same is happening on the either side of the road. Therefore, the custom is that if you are the slower vehicle, you should pull over onto the shoulder (only in places big enough) and allow the vehicle behind you to drive straight on through. We soon discovered that this action is followed by a single push of the emergency lights as a thank you. The driver who allowed them to pass is to do the same to acknowledge the thank you and say you are welcome. Now the ‘thank you’ or the ‘your welcome’ is not always an emergency flasher but is sometimes a wave, a honk or a flash of the lights. Although this system may seem dangerous, it would be great if the drivers of Saskatchewan adapted this form of communication as it really has brightened our driving days – Katie and I love to drive just so we can ‘car talk’ with everyone around us.
The first day hike was more about getting to the top of the peak so we were driven to a point which allowed us to reach the top of the mountain in one day. This meant that we had to drive for two hours in the minibus (no AC and 12 people makes for a great deal of heat especially when it is +35 (or greater) outside). The initial part of the hike was quite easy and it was great because we got to enjoy the mountainscape around us. After one difficult gorge we made it to the top to unfortunately be met by cloud cover and a great deal of lighting and thunder. Although, we were supposed to eat our lunch up there, we could not stop and sit for fear of getting struck by lightning - this may seem a little farfetched, but trust me, it does happen and one of our guides is a witness (thank god we are shorter than most other people). Tourists die on these mountain ranges every year, the main cause is being struck by lightning, the second is from walking off of the cliffs due to poor visibility from the clouds and the fog and the third is from venomous snake bites (yep...we had to watch our foot work everywhere for fear of stepping on one of these creatures). This was doubly disappointing because not only did we not get to eat our lunch, but at the top of the gorge we should have been enjoying a panoramic view of the amphitheatre rather than struggling to see ten feet in front of us. Luckily the hike to the waterfalls was short and by that time, the clouds had cleared enough for us to get a good view.
The second day was a lot different!!! We already knew that it was going to be harder because everyone informed us that it would be, but usually with a slight shrug that meant no big deal – right...wrong! The drive was only half as long as before, but we had to leave two hours earlier which should have been our first indication that this was not going to be an easy ride. Not to mention there was only three people on this tour whereas the other had twelve and that tour runs daily. We asked our guide how many times she had climbed this mountain and she told us that she had only done this trip 11 times in the 8 years that she had been working for the company – All we could think of was holy s**t!
The total distance was 19.5 km with only about half a km on flat ground (and not to mention that a good deal of it was quite vertical). After about five minutes even the guide was huffing along with the rest of us. It didn’t help that it was again over 40 degrees outside. The only one who wasn’t huffing was the almost 48 year old German named Andre who we didn’t think we were going to like very much at the beginning. However, everyone on the trip turned out to be great. We even picked up a straggler along the way who had actually stayed at the hostel the night before and was just out to see if he could tag along with a group to the peak. Smart man not paying the 1050 or 530 Rands it cost (depending on how many other trips you took) and still getting a guide to the peak which was definitely required.
After much painful hiking (for those not fit) we made it through to nearly the peak to fear that we were going to be skunked out by lightning. Our disappointment was not going to get in our way, especially the avid hiker Andre who was determined to get to the top despite the threats that it was not safe from the guide. Even us ‘non hikers’ were sceptical of the advice to stop because of how close we were and how hard it had been to get there. I think if we would have had to stop Andre would have just ran up the peak anyways. I mean this guy had hiked probably most of the mountains on all of the continents and you could tell because at one point he lapped us by running back down Bugger’s gully (named that because it is a bugger to climb) to grab our guides bag to help her up. I could not have imagined climbing down that voluntarily and then heading back up.
Anyways the one blue patch of sky above us turned out to be kind to us and we continued the rest of the way up. It was easy to see once we got close how dangerous the rain would have been to us had we made it to the top before it had hit. It would have been the difference between going down and spending a night on the highest free standing peak in the Drakensburg (3050m above sea level-check that because I swear the guide gave us different numbers). Even the rain from the night before made it difficult because the water was still seeping out of the earth and wetting the near vertical rocks. Although, Andre had made it without the use of the rope and chose the most dangerous paths, the rest of the group voted to use the rocks because it was impossible to find hand holds. We still had to climb it, but the rope was a nice security. The top was the craziest part because all you could see around you was shear rock faces and the butt of the person in front of you. But we made it (a mere 6 ½ hours later) and the view from the top was worth every struggle. The view was unobstructed for 360 degrees and it was here that we ate our lunch and had just a few minutes to snap some pictures.
In order to get back down the mountain safely, we had to leave quickly - it was pretty hard to imagine that we now had to head down after working so hard to get up. Although gravity was in our favour, the vertical incline was not, and I think everyone’s knees were killing them by the time we made it to the bottom. And stopping along the way was not easy because it was much too hard to get the engine going again. I think that was the one and only time I have ever felt my legs shaking while standing still. I know that Katie and the rest of the group felt exactly the same way...with the exception of Andre. We finished the night off with a beer as the group had bonded quite a lot on the climb. Our guide Z (first black woman to climb Cathedral peak - it might sound untrue but as she put it, native South Africans don’t climb for fun and the certainly don’t pay someone to climb for ‘fun’), Terrence (our second in command and Z’s boyfriend), Andre (the crazy German or the ‘robot’ as we called him), Louise (the straggler) and of course Katie and myself made it a great and unforgettable day.
Once we got home there was only one thing to do...okay well two...but after cancelling our rock climbing adventure on the account of much needed rest, we had to sleep and sleep we did!
The only thing there is to say about our adventures for the following day is Aleve, Band-Aids (Katie had blisters all over here feet) and rest!!! We did get to see a little bit of traditional Zulu dancing accompanied by great Zulu singing and acoustic guitar.
Originally, we had been booked to stay overnight in Lesotho (pronounced le-sootoo) which we were very excited for. However, it turns out that the owners of the hostel had misinformed us and that the stay at Lesotho would be two days because the hostel only entered the village every second day. This meant that we would have to spend two nights in the village. This would have been great and we would have learned a great deal about rural African culture however this would not work with our timeline (although it is pretty slack). So we discussed with one of the upper management and it came about that we could take our own vehicle behind the tour and then stay the night and take a taxi the next day, so we were set! BUT...we ran into a couple who had done the day tour earlier that week and told us that the road was so bad that all 15 passengers in the bus had to get out at some points and push the bus up the hills. So that kyboshed our plans to stay the night so we decided to just go with a day tour.
So we awoke the next day excited to visit Lesotho especially because it is one of the most untouched and beautiful areas of South Africa...or so we had been told. However, the morning started off badly. We were to leave on the tour at 8 am sharp but the minibus didn’t show up. At around nine thirty we all began discussing how much money it was going to cost for less than three hours in Lesotho. The drive to the village was two hours and we would have to be back at the border by 4 leaving little to no time in the village and it was going to cost 440 Rands a person. So our group of ten dwindled to three because everyone cancelled. We altered our plans (yet again) and decided that we would head down to the Wild ‘Wild’ Coast – YEHAAWWW!!!!!
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Today A Monkey Pissed On Me (St. Lucia and Xhuhluwe/Imfolini Game Reserve)
Today A Monkey Pissed On Me...well, not me, but Jeremy (but I did get a bit of the back splash) and we will get to that story in a bit because I first want to tell you how we got there. After our amazing finale with the Lions at Kruger, Jeremy and I drove the 6 hour drive to a small town called St. Lucia, which is famous for their crocodiles and hippos. To get there, we drove through Swaziland – a country within the country of South Africa. We didn’t get to see much of it as we stayed to the major highways but what small amounts we did see was absolutely beautiful. In fact, it kind of reminded us a bit of Saskatchewan as along the route, there was dozens and dozens of farmer’s fields – the only difference was that instead of wheat or canola, they were farming sugar cane. When we reached our destination, the place we were recommended to stay was fully booked and we ended up settling for a pretty run down place. I asked the woman to see the rooms prior to paying but since she was the only one working the counter, she said she couldn’t leave but assured us that it was a very neat and clean unit. Clean was a bit of a tale, the room stunk and there were bugs crawling all over the bathroom – yuck! The only perk was that there was no one else in the hostile (go figure – we were taken) and so we were able to spread out in the kitchen and cook, cook, cook. The second let down came when we booked a morning tour on the St. Lucia Estuary to get close ups of the Hippo’s. I was down right bored. Jeremy kept himself busy by admiring the birds along the way. From there, we stopped at a market where we bought local produce from different sellers – they were so grateful for our support. We actually lined the food up on the ground and took a picture of it (look for the pic in the album). We purchased all of this food for the low low price of $80 Rands which is a little over ten Canadian dollars...pretty hard to believe! There was no way Jeremy or I could have consumed all of this food prior to it rotting so we made a little care package and gave it to a street vendor (whom we later bought a beautiful cloth painting from) as he was begging us to buy something from him as he was starving – his words of thanks were simple to us, he simply said, “God Bless”.
From there we headed to the Crocodile Sanctuary where by chance, we arrived just in time for the croc feeding (which is only done once a week on Sundays). By now, the temperature was above 40 degrees Celsius and it was only 11am. The feeding was so neat to experience and the lead tour guide was very knowledgeable and gave us tons of tid bit facts about crocs. For example, crocodiles have two penus’ which means they can mate on either side, they also swallow rocks to help break up the digestion of bones and the one I really find interesting is that the temperature determines the sex of the babies. So for example, if a certain region or park had a minority of females, then the crocodile sanctuary would incubate the eggs ~ between 30 -34 degrees and ‘voila’, a female croc would be produced. We posted a very cool video of the large crocodiles feeding. The one giant crocodile in the far corner, away from the rest, was taken in by the Sanctuary after it was captured or what I like to think ‘reprimanded’ for eating a baby and the mother. It was brought to the sanctuary where it underwent surgery to extract the body parts. The crocodile was named Meshesha which means FAST! It was given this name because within 5 minutes of it awaking from surgery, it was already mating with a female.
We then took a nice detour to the baby and juvenile croc center – this was also very interesting to see as they literally walked all over each other and fought like crazy over the chunks of chicken meat that were being fed to it. I of course felt bad for the under dogs because they were not aggressive enough and a few of them left empty handed as they were unable to grab any piece of meat. After touring around the sick wing (i.e. crocs that have been brought in after being trapped in poachers snares etc.) and checking out the ‘aggressive’ unauthorized wing (where in the past the crocs have actually charged the cages) we were free to walk around. This is where the whole monkey and the peeing thing comes in to play. Jeremy and I were busy running around taking tons of pics of the cute little monkeys that were jumping from tree to tree. Jeremy was extremely fascinated in a mother monkey that was carrying her baby and as he had his head tilted fully up snapping pictures, a monkey above decided to let mother nature run its course. It was pretty funny and I actually felt a bit of the splash...but because it was now the peak of the day (a whopping 44 degrees), I didn’t know if I should run after the monkey or thank it for cooling us down for just a brief moment – lol!
We finished off our St. Lucia experience with a Night time game drive. Luckily, we spotted a leopard (completing our Big 5 sitting) but that was pretty much the highlight as we really saw nothing else other than bush buck, zebras and water buffalo as it was much too dark out. We told the guide about the pee experience earlier in the day and he informed us that to get peed on by a monkey is actually good luck to the locals and therefore maybe was the reason that we were there for the first leopard sighting in the last 3 months.
The part we really found interesting about St. Lucia was that the locals, where ever you would go, would give you tips about what to do in the event of a hippo or croc. The Hippo’s are famous for grazing the grass in the downtown stretch at night and if one was ever encountered, we were told to not only run like hell but constantly make turns to confuse the hippo. The town also has a pair of leopards that have taken the area in as their home. We were told to never leave each other’s side because this would intimidate the leopards and stop them from potentially attacking. Desperate to see more of these fascinating animals, Jeremy and I drove around the town at night trying to spot them – we were unlucky in our attempt to spot a leopard or two but we did spot tons of crocs in the water and stumbled upon some Hippos out and about grazing – so crazy to think.
The following morning, we got up at 3:45 am and headed to the Hluhluwe/Imfoluzi Game Reserve where we spent the entire day aimlessly driving around looking for the beautiful wildlife (mainly the cats). We stopped at every bathroom along the way and I would completely drench my self from head to toe, but it really only lasted for fifteen minutes because after that time I was completely dried off due to the insane heat. We spotted every animal imaginable (except those darn cats!) and we noticed a number of zebras that were what we called the ‘lucky’ ones as they had escaped what must have only been an attack from a pride of lions – my heart of course went out to these poor (but so beautiful) creatures. One of our favourite parts of the park was a set of Dung Beetles that I managed to somehow see while driving down a road. Here, the beetles gather a chunk of elephant dung and roll it down the road and by doing this, the dung turns into a compacted ball which to them is a perfect place to nestle in and call home once the final destination has been reached. The other favourite from this park were the Rhino’s – seriously, the park should have been called The Rhino Game Reserve because everywhere we turned there were Rhino’s either in our way or in our line of sight. We encountered one particularly cool Rhino who had a horn that was at least 1m long. We showed our picture to some locals and they could not believe how lucky we were to have not only seen such an old animal but to have seen it in general. The parks are having a really hard time controlling the poachers and this horn alone they quoted us could sell for $250,000 overseas. In fact this year alone the rangers have discovered 23 rhinos dead in the park – carcass rotting but the horn cut off.
We treated ourselves that night to staying inside the park at the Hilltop Resort, which, like the name suggests was on the top of the hills. The view was beautiful and we are kicking ourselves now for not checking it out at night as the stars in SA have been vibrant. The following day, we slept in till 5 am and were back on the roads looking for those darn cats at 5:30. We left the park at 10am after spotting tons of animals and headed to Mtuzuni to meet up with Merv and Jane Wallace (brother of our neighbour up at the lake). There we spent the entire day and a night with them in their beautiful little paradise (their house was actually on a nature reserve). They entertained and fed us and gave us some indispensable advice about what we needed to see prior to the Garden Route. We left early in the morning (again after an amazing breakfast) and headed to the Drakensberg Mountains where, because of them, we have now checked in to this incredibly beautiful area for a whopping 5 days – I guess that is the beauty of not having plans...we can just go with the flow!
From there we headed to the Crocodile Sanctuary where by chance, we arrived just in time for the croc feeding (which is only done once a week on Sundays). By now, the temperature was above 40 degrees Celsius and it was only 11am. The feeding was so neat to experience and the lead tour guide was very knowledgeable and gave us tons of tid bit facts about crocs. For example, crocodiles have two penus’ which means they can mate on either side, they also swallow rocks to help break up the digestion of bones and the one I really find interesting is that the temperature determines the sex of the babies. So for example, if a certain region or park had a minority of females, then the crocodile sanctuary would incubate the eggs ~ between 30 -34 degrees and ‘voila’, a female croc would be produced. We posted a very cool video of the large crocodiles feeding. The one giant crocodile in the far corner, away from the rest, was taken in by the Sanctuary after it was captured or what I like to think ‘reprimanded’ for eating a baby and the mother. It was brought to the sanctuary where it underwent surgery to extract the body parts. The crocodile was named Meshesha which means FAST! It was given this name because within 5 minutes of it awaking from surgery, it was already mating with a female.
We then took a nice detour to the baby and juvenile croc center – this was also very interesting to see as they literally walked all over each other and fought like crazy over the chunks of chicken meat that were being fed to it. I of course felt bad for the under dogs because they were not aggressive enough and a few of them left empty handed as they were unable to grab any piece of meat. After touring around the sick wing (i.e. crocs that have been brought in after being trapped in poachers snares etc.) and checking out the ‘aggressive’ unauthorized wing (where in the past the crocs have actually charged the cages) we were free to walk around. This is where the whole monkey and the peeing thing comes in to play. Jeremy and I were busy running around taking tons of pics of the cute little monkeys that were jumping from tree to tree. Jeremy was extremely fascinated in a mother monkey that was carrying her baby and as he had his head tilted fully up snapping pictures, a monkey above decided to let mother nature run its course. It was pretty funny and I actually felt a bit of the splash...but because it was now the peak of the day (a whopping 44 degrees), I didn’t know if I should run after the monkey or thank it for cooling us down for just a brief moment – lol!
We finished off our St. Lucia experience with a Night time game drive. Luckily, we spotted a leopard (completing our Big 5 sitting) but that was pretty much the highlight as we really saw nothing else other than bush buck, zebras and water buffalo as it was much too dark out. We told the guide about the pee experience earlier in the day and he informed us that to get peed on by a monkey is actually good luck to the locals and therefore maybe was the reason that we were there for the first leopard sighting in the last 3 months.
The part we really found interesting about St. Lucia was that the locals, where ever you would go, would give you tips about what to do in the event of a hippo or croc. The Hippo’s are famous for grazing the grass in the downtown stretch at night and if one was ever encountered, we were told to not only run like hell but constantly make turns to confuse the hippo. The town also has a pair of leopards that have taken the area in as their home. We were told to never leave each other’s side because this would intimidate the leopards and stop them from potentially attacking. Desperate to see more of these fascinating animals, Jeremy and I drove around the town at night trying to spot them – we were unlucky in our attempt to spot a leopard or two but we did spot tons of crocs in the water and stumbled upon some Hippos out and about grazing – so crazy to think.
The following morning, we got up at 3:45 am and headed to the Hluhluwe/Imfoluzi Game Reserve where we spent the entire day aimlessly driving around looking for the beautiful wildlife (mainly the cats). We stopped at every bathroom along the way and I would completely drench my self from head to toe, but it really only lasted for fifteen minutes because after that time I was completely dried off due to the insane heat. We spotted every animal imaginable (except those darn cats!) and we noticed a number of zebras that were what we called the ‘lucky’ ones as they had escaped what must have only been an attack from a pride of lions – my heart of course went out to these poor (but so beautiful) creatures. One of our favourite parts of the park was a set of Dung Beetles that I managed to somehow see while driving down a road. Here, the beetles gather a chunk of elephant dung and roll it down the road and by doing this, the dung turns into a compacted ball which to them is a perfect place to nestle in and call home once the final destination has been reached. The other favourite from this park were the Rhino’s – seriously, the park should have been called The Rhino Game Reserve because everywhere we turned there were Rhino’s either in our way or in our line of sight. We encountered one particularly cool Rhino who had a horn that was at least 1m long. We showed our picture to some locals and they could not believe how lucky we were to have not only seen such an old animal but to have seen it in general. The parks are having a really hard time controlling the poachers and this horn alone they quoted us could sell for $250,000 overseas. In fact this year alone the rangers have discovered 23 rhinos dead in the park – carcass rotting but the horn cut off.
We treated ourselves that night to staying inside the park at the Hilltop Resort, which, like the name suggests was on the top of the hills. The view was beautiful and we are kicking ourselves now for not checking it out at night as the stars in SA have been vibrant. The following day, we slept in till 5 am and were back on the roads looking for those darn cats at 5:30. We left the park at 10am after spotting tons of animals and headed to Mtuzuni to meet up with Merv and Jane Wallace (brother of our neighbour up at the lake). There we spent the entire day and a night with them in their beautiful little paradise (their house was actually on a nature reserve). They entertained and fed us and gave us some indispensable advice about what we needed to see prior to the Garden Route. We left early in the morning (again after an amazing breakfast) and headed to the Drakensberg Mountains where, because of them, we have now checked in to this incredibly beautiful area for a whopping 5 days – I guess that is the beauty of not having plans...we can just go with the flow!
Kruger National Park
After leaving the beautiful peaks of the Rustenburg area, Jeremy and I made the 6 hour drive to a small town located near the Kruger National Park called Nelspruit. We checked in to a hostel called the ‘Funkey Monkey’, and like the name suggests, it sure was funky! The following morning, we headed to the infamous park that we had heard so much about. But we had just been on two awesome game drives at the Pilanseberg National Park so we did not really know what to expect. We were now going to be driving the park by ourselves and in our own little midget car - yikes. Within ten minutes of entering the park, Jeremy and I spotted a rhino and her baby – we were not sure if it was a black or white rhino, but were guessing a black one because the baby was following behind the mother unlike the white rhino who follows her baby. Humbu (from our Game Drives) gave us a liitle tip to help remember this...he told us that the black people, similar to the black rhino’s, carry their babies on their back and the white people, similar to the white rhino’s, carry their babies on their front ). While we were admiring the rhino’s, we looked up and saw an SUV driving in reverse down the road at a very high speed. We thought they were backing up to see what we were seeing but then suddenly, from around the corner came a large bull elephant walking down the center of the road. At one point while we were filming the elephant, we must have scared the rhino and her baby as they charged toward our car – for my family out there, you know I panic in almost all situations, so this one was no different!!! Thank goodness for Jeremy who was able to talk me through my reversing skills. After our heart rates had settled, I continued to drive around a curve where we spotted two water buffalos catching some rays in a nearby pond. So...in a mere matter of 20 minutes, we spotted 3 of the ‘Big 5’ (for those of you that are not familiar with the Big 5, they are the cheetah, lion, rhino, water buffalo and elephant). We drove for the entire day throughout the park from 7 in the morning until 5pm at night. Jeremy drove the painful 150km back to Nelspriut.
Tip No. 6) Another tip to know about South Africa is that a mere 40km on the highway is not 1/3 of an hour but rather could be two hours even on the highway. Therefore, when planning a trip be sure to give yourself triple the time because you will run into a village every ten minutes and are sure to cut your speed in half every time.
For example, the GPS had predicted 3.5 hours for this 150km drive and we laughed because we thought how could this be??? Well, sure enough we pulled into the driveway 3.5 hours later after dodging potholes, goats, cows and PEOPLE – rain or shine, night or day, the highways are lined with people. They are quite oblivious of a vehicles right of way on the highway and not only walk on the road but do so in groups of two or more in a line perpendicular to the road (and keep in mind the shoulder in many rural areas is only 10cm).
Other than the cats who where hanging out in the shaded areas (or so we were told) we saw every other animal possible including monkeys, impalas, kudu’s, wildebeests, giraffes, zebra’s elephants, hippo’s, jackals, rhino’s, water buffalos, zebra’s and tons of different birds.
Day two at Kruger was not as exciting as day one as we got off to a bad start. We slept in (or let me rephrase that, I slept in) till 6 am so by the time we arrived at the gates of Kruger it was already 9am and the sun was beating down on us (and the animals). We had decided the night before that we would spend a night in Kruger so when we went to look at accommodations the day of, much to our surprise the place was nearly all booked up. We were able to get a hut for $300 Rand (~$50 Canadian Dollars) but we did not like the location of the place. We then cancelled that reservation and booked a spot at the campground at the Berg-en-dal campsite thinking we would just sleep in our car. After twenty minutes of this idea floating around in our heads, we went back to the first place and cancelled the campground and rebooked the hut – the place was filled with laughter as everyone in the office was laughing at how dumb and indecisive we were. We drove around for the remainder of the day encountering lots of animals, but we still had not seen any cats.
Day 3 at Kruger had the potential to be a very exciting one as we were up at 5am and the first ones in line at the gate for when it opened at 5:30am. We were told by a number of people that the best time to see the animals was first thing in the morning. More often than not, the animals would be nestled on the roads to keep dry as the daytime heat cools off in the evening and turns to dew soaking all of the grass and in turn, soaking the animals. So we were amped to be the first ones out and just cruise the roads in search of cats. Some jack ass decided that we were going too slow (speed limit of 50) and quickly passed me – I was obviously upset because he would be scaring off any animals that may be on the road. I decided I would try and keep up with him in case he did run into something. We were not going to let him scare away `our animals` although he was driving like a maniac. As we were turning a corner, we noticed him slow down and there in front of us, with the sun rising in the background was a giant Rhino sleeping on the road (he also had a bird sleeping on him too – it was so cute!). We continued to follow the maniac until he thankfully took a different route than us and within one minute of heading down this main road, we came across a pride of 4 male lions just lounging on the road. We were so close to them and they were absolutely beautiful (and bigger than the ones we encountered at the lion park). They finally ventured off the road but were never too far from our line of sight. Jeremy and I actually had our breakfast watching them – nothing like a bowl of Corn Flakes watching the ones you love.
All in all, Kruger was absolutely FANTASTIC!!!!! Our highlights included:
-Driving down a minor slopped valley and having two baby elephants run across the road (and right in front of our car)
-Turning around a corner and having to slam on our brakes as a bull elephant (very very BIG!!!!) was walking right towards us (on 2 separate occasions)
-Losing our minds from the +40 heat that we were driving in all day, for three days and singing Hakuna Mattata and I Just Cant Wait to be King.
-Treating ourselves every hour or so to a little bit of heaven (aka AIR CONDITIONING in the car). We are after all trying to be frugal (haha!) and if this is one way to save some bills, then so be it! Jeremy and I would also monitor dumb moves like opening the car windows while the a/c was on (Jeremy forgetting it was and trying to take pictures on multiple occasions) and infractions would be an additional 30 seconds of the losers fan while on AC.
-AND...last but certainly not least (well for Jeremy anyways) was all of the beautiful trees we encountered along the way. And yes, there were lots of them...I would know because he made me pull over on each and every one of them so he could take tons of pictures. My heart would briefly stop for a split second as he would ask me to stop and back up as though “he saw something” and every time I would be disappointed that it was just a TREE.
Tip No. 6) Another tip to know about South Africa is that a mere 40km on the highway is not 1/3 of an hour but rather could be two hours even on the highway. Therefore, when planning a trip be sure to give yourself triple the time because you will run into a village every ten minutes and are sure to cut your speed in half every time.
For example, the GPS had predicted 3.5 hours for this 150km drive and we laughed because we thought how could this be??? Well, sure enough we pulled into the driveway 3.5 hours later after dodging potholes, goats, cows and PEOPLE – rain or shine, night or day, the highways are lined with people. They are quite oblivious of a vehicles right of way on the highway and not only walk on the road but do so in groups of two or more in a line perpendicular to the road (and keep in mind the shoulder in many rural areas is only 10cm).
Other than the cats who where hanging out in the shaded areas (or so we were told) we saw every other animal possible including monkeys, impalas, kudu’s, wildebeests, giraffes, zebra’s elephants, hippo’s, jackals, rhino’s, water buffalos, zebra’s and tons of different birds.
Day two at Kruger was not as exciting as day one as we got off to a bad start. We slept in (or let me rephrase that, I slept in) till 6 am so by the time we arrived at the gates of Kruger it was already 9am and the sun was beating down on us (and the animals). We had decided the night before that we would spend a night in Kruger so when we went to look at accommodations the day of, much to our surprise the place was nearly all booked up. We were able to get a hut for $300 Rand (~$50 Canadian Dollars) but we did not like the location of the place. We then cancelled that reservation and booked a spot at the campground at the Berg-en-dal campsite thinking we would just sleep in our car. After twenty minutes of this idea floating around in our heads, we went back to the first place and cancelled the campground and rebooked the hut – the place was filled with laughter as everyone in the office was laughing at how dumb and indecisive we were. We drove around for the remainder of the day encountering lots of animals, but we still had not seen any cats.
Day 3 at Kruger had the potential to be a very exciting one as we were up at 5am and the first ones in line at the gate for when it opened at 5:30am. We were told by a number of people that the best time to see the animals was first thing in the morning. More often than not, the animals would be nestled on the roads to keep dry as the daytime heat cools off in the evening and turns to dew soaking all of the grass and in turn, soaking the animals. So we were amped to be the first ones out and just cruise the roads in search of cats. Some jack ass decided that we were going too slow (speed limit of 50) and quickly passed me – I was obviously upset because he would be scaring off any animals that may be on the road. I decided I would try and keep up with him in case he did run into something. We were not going to let him scare away `our animals` although he was driving like a maniac. As we were turning a corner, we noticed him slow down and there in front of us, with the sun rising in the background was a giant Rhino sleeping on the road (he also had a bird sleeping on him too – it was so cute!). We continued to follow the maniac until he thankfully took a different route than us and within one minute of heading down this main road, we came across a pride of 4 male lions just lounging on the road. We were so close to them and they were absolutely beautiful (and bigger than the ones we encountered at the lion park). They finally ventured off the road but were never too far from our line of sight. Jeremy and I actually had our breakfast watching them – nothing like a bowl of Corn Flakes watching the ones you love.
All in all, Kruger was absolutely FANTASTIC!!!!! Our highlights included:
-Driving down a minor slopped valley and having two baby elephants run across the road (and right in front of our car)
-Turning around a corner and having to slam on our brakes as a bull elephant (very very BIG!!!!) was walking right towards us (on 2 separate occasions)
-Losing our minds from the +40 heat that we were driving in all day, for three days and singing Hakuna Mattata and I Just Cant Wait to be King.
-Treating ourselves every hour or so to a little bit of heaven (aka AIR CONDITIONING in the car). We are after all trying to be frugal (haha!) and if this is one way to save some bills, then so be it! Jeremy and I would also monitor dumb moves like opening the car windows while the a/c was on (Jeremy forgetting it was and trying to take pictures on multiple occasions) and infractions would be an additional 30 seconds of the losers fan while on AC.
-AND...last but certainly not least (well for Jeremy anyways) was all of the beautiful trees we encountered along the way. And yes, there were lots of them...I would know because he made me pull over on each and every one of them so he could take tons of pictures. My heart would briefly stop for a split second as he would ask me to stop and back up as though “he saw something” and every time I would be disappointed that it was just a TREE.
Rustenburg and Pilansberg
From Joburg we headed North to Rustenburg but made sure to first stop at a barber shop so I could shave my head for the first time. The woman thought I should leave my hair long enough so that I would not burn my scalp...so I did. What a mistake and we both agreed immediately after leaving the barber shop that it would have to be dealt with later when we had more time. We got instructions again from Peter at the Joburg Backpacker Ritzs and headed on our way. Now there are many things that you have to understand about the people here and South Africa in general.
#1) Although, they are nice and have all of the amenities of any first world nation they surely have not the same detailed driving directions that us Saskatchewan people give to new comers. But after driving the roads for a while you can understand why. When they say go twenty km then turn right, go four km take a left and then drive straight forever, you see that it wouldn’t matter if they gave us the name of street signs because there are none. For example, in our Sasky nation we even label our township roads whereas here you could go right by your turn off without ever having known it until you end up in another rural village or town.
It took us quite a while to find the right roads to Rustenburg. Despite our careful attention and persistence to spot the road we seemed to consistently get lost. We are not talking about a few blocks but rather ten to twenty kilometres. Not always are we lost for that long but we just can’t figure out how to turn around because the traffic is crazy. This leads to point number two you need to understand about SA.
#2) When a sign says beware of pedestrians, cows and other domestic animals (somewhat domestic animals) you really need to watch out. Unlike Canada this doesn’t imply that a pedestrian cross walk is approaching or that a fence may be broken and a cow may escape. This means that in a two hour drive you may pass by 10,000 locals on their way to work, around town and just out for a stroll. You will also likely pass a herd or two of goats or cows that have been let out to munch on the grass that is no more than 10cm off of the highway. Yes that is right...highway!! We are not talking about arterial or small roads...we are talking about major highways. This also leads to point number three that most of the locals are very trusting.
#3) I asked one of the locals about why the goats are wandering the streets and he said that the owner will take them out in the morning to a nearby bush to graze, which after they will be allowed to wander around with no worries of them being stolen or lost. Later that evening they are simply rounded up from wherever they wander to. It is crazy to think that in areas where people are very hard off, they would not take someone else’s animals. Not only are they trusting, but they truly help each other out. When someone is driving along the highway and sees a hitchhiker it is very unusual for them to not stop and help each other out.
Ok so now back on to our adventures. So when we arrived in Rustenburg we tried to contact the owner of the hostel that we would be staying at, to try and get directions. However, we could not contact them so we figured we could find it ourselves based on the address and simple directions (i.e. 10.5 km from the waterfall mall third brown sign on the right hand side of the road). There was no information on what direction this distance was from town and what the sign would say. So we managed to pass through Rustenburg without really knowing it and end up in the middle of a platinum mine area with no real buildings around. After driving around and considering staying at everywhere else in town, we were stumped as what to do. Sadly as it is to say as ‘newbies’ we were a bit worried about some of the areas of towns even in daylight because we did not know what to expect. We had never seen so many people walking the city streets with small huts and rural like buildings right next door. Finally we managed to find someone who could help us because he had a GPS and just typed in the name. He was nice enough to drive us to the area of town where the hostel was.
We finally found that ‘third brown sign’ which was no larger than a pizza box and lead us to a gravel/boulder road that looked like a service road or back alley between acreages. Nevertheless, we had arrived and were awestruck by how nice the courtyard and the lodgings were. It was a different type of beauty in comparison to the courtyard of the ritz in Joburg. Anyways our hectic schedule did not slow down from there. Not more than two mintues after checking into our accommodations, did we have a game drive booked that evening, despite a recommendation by the owner to hold off until the next day because it was too rushed. So we got again ‘simple directions’ and were told that we could not get lost. Well that was a stupid thing to consider because sure enough we were lost before we started. We ended up about thirty km past the location stopping every ten minutes to try and recoup and not kill eachother. At one point we thought we had found the right place because the sign said Pilanseburg (that is the name of the national park near Rustenburg) but wow to our surprise that was an airport, although there had no mention of an airport on the sign and we had not seen any other signs for an airport along the roadway.
We finally managed to find the place but we were eight minutes late for our night game drive and were in total despair especially because it felt like we had been through hell to get there and it was for nothing. However, luckilyt hey had not yet entered into the park and one of the park employees helped us to intercept them before they did.
Our tour was in an open jeep trolloping through the mountains. Our guide Humbo (pronounced oom-bo-which means to remember) was awesome and super knowledgeable. Within about ten minutes in the park we ran into a group of giraffes just munching on some tree tops. Being our first real wild animal sighting we snapped pics like crazy. This continued when we spotted a huge group of elephants walking across one of the hillsides. Even at a distance the noise was easy to hear (breaking branches). Then we moved on and ran into a heard of wildebeest, impala and zebra (we were told they stay together for safety). Shortly afterward, we ran into 4 elephants just wandering across the road. It was neat how they protected their young and made noises to try and stop us from getting closer to take pictures.
This wasn't the only elephant we seen running on the road. We ran into a baby bull elephant (but big) and it walked two feet from my (Jeremy) face. It literally looked me in the eye as it walked on by (at the back of the jeep) and was at my head height. We also seen crocodiles, a rhino like thirty feet away, a pod of hippos out of the water, more giraffes at night, owls all over the road (they hang out on the road to catch their prey) and lots more of the same. We stopped at one point and Humbo turned off the engine and lights so that we could see the fireflies and listen to the melody of the frogs. It was so amazing. The tour was under $50 Canadian and ran for over three hours and was well past dark when we finished.
The road home was good but even after getting directions from three people for the same route, to cover our bases, we got lost. It was worse this time because it seemed like once we got into town we kept driving into the ghettos. I mean the busiest streets by day were absolutely deserted by night. Finally after stressing out and driving around like crazed people for an hour, we got some help from a security guard and finally made it home.
Before heading out again the next morning to get lost, we stopped and bought a GPS and also purchased a razor to get rid of the goofy hair cut I now had. We thought, enough of this shit!!! Had we not gotten this, we would soon be alone (Katie jokes and tells everyone that had we been married, we would now definitely be divorced). What a lifesaver, not only will we not kill each other but hopefully we will not get lost in sketchy neighbourhoods again... (although we paid ~300 CAD for it – YIKES). After getting our GPS we headed out to Sun City. Although, the GPS was a saviour it routed us to the back entrance of Sun City which we could not enter through. I guess it was meant to be because we ran into a market at a park gate there and bought quite a few souvenirs. Originally we thought that all of the market stalls were part of a group so we looked through them all. However, it turns out they were all separate and so felt bad when choosing where to buy from. Therefore, we purchased something from each separate stall. It was probably a little more than we wanted to spend but they were super happy that we bought things from each and some were so grateful as to say god bless.
#4) If someone working at a market tells you that they made the merchandise themselves, you have a 50/50 chance that they actually did. It is either a lack of communication or they just really need to sell something.
#5) People here love to ask us where we are from and then inquire about how much money it would cost to go there. We are not sure if it is a kind of ‘run around’ way to get us to help them out because after we tell them how much it would cost and the opportunities there, they almost all seem to tell us how little there salary is and how long it would take to get the money required to get there. However, some of the people we have spoken to are sincere and have informed us that there is no opportunity for most people to travel or move somewhere else as their wage is just enough to pay for the basic necessities with no money left to be saved.
When we finally arrived in Sun City it was easy to see it was a miniature version of Las Vegas in the jungle. This is not at all what we were expecting and it was kind of disappointing, although the palace grounds and the scenery on the drive out were stunning. The rebuilt ancient Palace was nice except you needed to pay just to look around inside. It was only 85 rands but after being to Vegas, how nice can any other hotel be?!? Anyways Katie asked a couple coming outside to see if it is worth it, while I was getting harassed by one of the workers to come inside. Well we made ‘friends’ with the couple quick and they walked us in and then left us to venture around (free self tour). It was definitely not worth the 85 rands and we felt out of place because several of the guests eyed us up and down as though we looked like we just came off the streets????
Although, it had been talked up as this historical site, from our visit we found that there was really no history to be learned but we could gamble to our hearts content if we liked. So we left and headed to the Rustenburg football (this implies soccer because some say that to use the term soccer in SA is an insult) stadium which to our surprise was going to be the main stadium for the world cup. We tried getting by security to take a look around and snap a few photos but even our plea as Canadian tourists, although it was close, did not work and we had to leave.
When we got home Katie shaved the rest of my head with the exception of about 5mm of hair.
The following morning we woke at half past three to go on one more game drive in the Pilanseburg national park. We managed to make it with time to spare...a first...thanks to the GPS. We were fortunate to have the same guide Humbo that we had previously. The morning started off with a bang as he managed to get us right alongside a family of elephants. The elephants were directly alongside the road when we pulled up and after he stopped the car the matriarch ventured onto the road and parked herself no more than two feet from the front of the jeep. She watched over us as the young crossed the road and munched on the trees twenty feet from us. This lasted nearly ten minutes and was, in Humbos’ words, the closest we would ever again get to an elephant in the wild without it being in the jeep. We spotted all of the animals we had previously seen however I did spot the ONE and ONLY ostrich remaining in the park – pretty impressive huh?!?
Next stop, Kruger National Park!!!
#1) Although, they are nice and have all of the amenities of any first world nation they surely have not the same detailed driving directions that us Saskatchewan people give to new comers. But after driving the roads for a while you can understand why. When they say go twenty km then turn right, go four km take a left and then drive straight forever, you see that it wouldn’t matter if they gave us the name of street signs because there are none. For example, in our Sasky nation we even label our township roads whereas here you could go right by your turn off without ever having known it until you end up in another rural village or town.
It took us quite a while to find the right roads to Rustenburg. Despite our careful attention and persistence to spot the road we seemed to consistently get lost. We are not talking about a few blocks but rather ten to twenty kilometres. Not always are we lost for that long but we just can’t figure out how to turn around because the traffic is crazy. This leads to point number two you need to understand about SA.
#2) When a sign says beware of pedestrians, cows and other domestic animals (somewhat domestic animals) you really need to watch out. Unlike Canada this doesn’t imply that a pedestrian cross walk is approaching or that a fence may be broken and a cow may escape. This means that in a two hour drive you may pass by 10,000 locals on their way to work, around town and just out for a stroll. You will also likely pass a herd or two of goats or cows that have been let out to munch on the grass that is no more than 10cm off of the highway. Yes that is right...highway!! We are not talking about arterial or small roads...we are talking about major highways. This also leads to point number three that most of the locals are very trusting.
#3) I asked one of the locals about why the goats are wandering the streets and he said that the owner will take them out in the morning to a nearby bush to graze, which after they will be allowed to wander around with no worries of them being stolen or lost. Later that evening they are simply rounded up from wherever they wander to. It is crazy to think that in areas where people are very hard off, they would not take someone else’s animals. Not only are they trusting, but they truly help each other out. When someone is driving along the highway and sees a hitchhiker it is very unusual for them to not stop and help each other out.
Ok so now back on to our adventures. So when we arrived in Rustenburg we tried to contact the owner of the hostel that we would be staying at, to try and get directions. However, we could not contact them so we figured we could find it ourselves based on the address and simple directions (i.e. 10.5 km from the waterfall mall third brown sign on the right hand side of the road). There was no information on what direction this distance was from town and what the sign would say. So we managed to pass through Rustenburg without really knowing it and end up in the middle of a platinum mine area with no real buildings around. After driving around and considering staying at everywhere else in town, we were stumped as what to do. Sadly as it is to say as ‘newbies’ we were a bit worried about some of the areas of towns even in daylight because we did not know what to expect. We had never seen so many people walking the city streets with small huts and rural like buildings right next door. Finally we managed to find someone who could help us because he had a GPS and just typed in the name. He was nice enough to drive us to the area of town where the hostel was.
We finally found that ‘third brown sign’ which was no larger than a pizza box and lead us to a gravel/boulder road that looked like a service road or back alley between acreages. Nevertheless, we had arrived and were awestruck by how nice the courtyard and the lodgings were. It was a different type of beauty in comparison to the courtyard of the ritz in Joburg. Anyways our hectic schedule did not slow down from there. Not more than two mintues after checking into our accommodations, did we have a game drive booked that evening, despite a recommendation by the owner to hold off until the next day because it was too rushed. So we got again ‘simple directions’ and were told that we could not get lost. Well that was a stupid thing to consider because sure enough we were lost before we started. We ended up about thirty km past the location stopping every ten minutes to try and recoup and not kill eachother. At one point we thought we had found the right place because the sign said Pilanseburg (that is the name of the national park near Rustenburg) but wow to our surprise that was an airport, although there had no mention of an airport on the sign and we had not seen any other signs for an airport along the roadway.
We finally managed to find the place but we were eight minutes late for our night game drive and were in total despair especially because it felt like we had been through hell to get there and it was for nothing. However, luckilyt hey had not yet entered into the park and one of the park employees helped us to intercept them before they did.
Our tour was in an open jeep trolloping through the mountains. Our guide Humbo (pronounced oom-bo-which means to remember) was awesome and super knowledgeable. Within about ten minutes in the park we ran into a group of giraffes just munching on some tree tops. Being our first real wild animal sighting we snapped pics like crazy. This continued when we spotted a huge group of elephants walking across one of the hillsides. Even at a distance the noise was easy to hear (breaking branches). Then we moved on and ran into a heard of wildebeest, impala and zebra (we were told they stay together for safety). Shortly afterward, we ran into 4 elephants just wandering across the road. It was neat how they protected their young and made noises to try and stop us from getting closer to take pictures.
This wasn't the only elephant we seen running on the road. We ran into a baby bull elephant (but big) and it walked two feet from my (Jeremy) face. It literally looked me in the eye as it walked on by (at the back of the jeep) and was at my head height. We also seen crocodiles, a rhino like thirty feet away, a pod of hippos out of the water, more giraffes at night, owls all over the road (they hang out on the road to catch their prey) and lots more of the same. We stopped at one point and Humbo turned off the engine and lights so that we could see the fireflies and listen to the melody of the frogs. It was so amazing. The tour was under $50 Canadian and ran for over three hours and was well past dark when we finished.
The road home was good but even after getting directions from three people for the same route, to cover our bases, we got lost. It was worse this time because it seemed like once we got into town we kept driving into the ghettos. I mean the busiest streets by day were absolutely deserted by night. Finally after stressing out and driving around like crazed people for an hour, we got some help from a security guard and finally made it home.
Before heading out again the next morning to get lost, we stopped and bought a GPS and also purchased a razor to get rid of the goofy hair cut I now had. We thought, enough of this shit!!! Had we not gotten this, we would soon be alone (Katie jokes and tells everyone that had we been married, we would now definitely be divorced). What a lifesaver, not only will we not kill each other but hopefully we will not get lost in sketchy neighbourhoods again... (although we paid ~300 CAD for it – YIKES). After getting our GPS we headed out to Sun City. Although, the GPS was a saviour it routed us to the back entrance of Sun City which we could not enter through. I guess it was meant to be because we ran into a market at a park gate there and bought quite a few souvenirs. Originally we thought that all of the market stalls were part of a group so we looked through them all. However, it turns out they were all separate and so felt bad when choosing where to buy from. Therefore, we purchased something from each separate stall. It was probably a little more than we wanted to spend but they were super happy that we bought things from each and some were so grateful as to say god bless.
#4) If someone working at a market tells you that they made the merchandise themselves, you have a 50/50 chance that they actually did. It is either a lack of communication or they just really need to sell something.
#5) People here love to ask us where we are from and then inquire about how much money it would cost to go there. We are not sure if it is a kind of ‘run around’ way to get us to help them out because after we tell them how much it would cost and the opportunities there, they almost all seem to tell us how little there salary is and how long it would take to get the money required to get there. However, some of the people we have spoken to are sincere and have informed us that there is no opportunity for most people to travel or move somewhere else as their wage is just enough to pay for the basic necessities with no money left to be saved.
When we finally arrived in Sun City it was easy to see it was a miniature version of Las Vegas in the jungle. This is not at all what we were expecting and it was kind of disappointing, although the palace grounds and the scenery on the drive out were stunning. The rebuilt ancient Palace was nice except you needed to pay just to look around inside. It was only 85 rands but after being to Vegas, how nice can any other hotel be?!? Anyways Katie asked a couple coming outside to see if it is worth it, while I was getting harassed by one of the workers to come inside. Well we made ‘friends’ with the couple quick and they walked us in and then left us to venture around (free self tour). It was definitely not worth the 85 rands and we felt out of place because several of the guests eyed us up and down as though we looked like we just came off the streets????
Although, it had been talked up as this historical site, from our visit we found that there was really no history to be learned but we could gamble to our hearts content if we liked. So we left and headed to the Rustenburg football (this implies soccer because some say that to use the term soccer in SA is an insult) stadium which to our surprise was going to be the main stadium for the world cup. We tried getting by security to take a look around and snap a few photos but even our plea as Canadian tourists, although it was close, did not work and we had to leave.
When we got home Katie shaved the rest of my head with the exception of about 5mm of hair.
The following morning we woke at half past three to go on one more game drive in the Pilanseburg national park. We managed to make it with time to spare...a first...thanks to the GPS. We were fortunate to have the same guide Humbo that we had previously. The morning started off with a bang as he managed to get us right alongside a family of elephants. The elephants were directly alongside the road when we pulled up and after he stopped the car the matriarch ventured onto the road and parked herself no more than two feet from the front of the jeep. She watched over us as the young crossed the road and munched on the trees twenty feet from us. This lasted nearly ten minutes and was, in Humbos’ words, the closest we would ever again get to an elephant in the wild without it being in the jeep. We spotted all of the animals we had previously seen however I did spot the ONE and ONLY ostrich remaining in the park – pretty impressive huh?!?
Next stop, Kruger National Park!!!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Our First Days in South Africa
We landed in Johannesburg at 4 am, without any place to stay or any idea of where we wanted to go. We tried looking for flights to Zimbabwe to see Victoria Falls but decided after painfully searching the internet that we needed a shower and a place to take a rest. After we picked up our rental car we headed out into the world of chaos also known as driving on the wrong side of the car, wrong side of the road and using the left hand to shift gears. I (Jeremy) was lucky to sit back and relax while Katie struggled with staying on the correct side of the road and remembering that the other half of the car was not on her right but was pushing into the other lane on my side. From the South Africaners standpoint the ‘wrong side’ was what us America residents had gotten wrong because we followed the French. But what does he know because after some bad directions from him, we ended up lost for three hours in Joburg.
Our hostel is quite nice minus the fact that it doesn’t truly look all that tidy in the toilets and rooms. It appears to have been a miniature castle in the past and has a beautiful courtyard with a view from the top that overlooks Joburg. After arriving we had a small rest and then decided that if we want to fight the jet lag we better just get on with it. So our first day here we went to a nearby mall then headed to the Joburg Zoo. One thing to note is that when driving here beware of the locals who sit at every intersection and at red lights try to sell you everything from Newspapers to sunglasses to car chargers and they seem to take it better if you just wave them off rather than ignoring them with the exception of a few who give you this look like you just let them down.
After seeing Saskatoon’s modest Zoo and a few others we decided that this Zoo was humungous. A full loop is over 10km and houses a large variety of animals...our first lion and elephant sighting but unfortunately the polar bears were not out for Katie. From the zoo we headed back to the mall picked up our new 3G card and decided it was time for bed...well Katie slept and I just fooled around on my camera for a few more hours.
After waking up from our extended sleep (Katie 17 hours and Jeremy 13) we headed out to the Lion Park. We managed to only get lost once (well kind of twice) on the way. Our journey to the park took us through our first slums. We were wondering why there were hundreds of people walking on what seemed to be deserted highways (don’t get us wrong exercise is good) until we noticed two very large slums just off the highway into the trees. It was pretty hard to see. The lion park was amazing...to our standards at this point. We drove our tiny little Hyandui Atos (maybe three feet in length with tires the size of basketballs) through the range. We didn’t see much excitement in the range until we got to the Lion Park #1 (yes there were four!). When we first drove into the lion park we thought to ourselves that it looked a little barren but that was until a large female lion crossed the road walking right in front of our car. The camera was out immediately and didn’t stop snapping for the rest of the day. After coming around the bend we ran into the male lion and what seemed to be one of his thirty female partners just lounging under a tree. We had arrived just after feeding time so the pride was scattered around ripping away meat from carcasses of who knows what. There was lions wandering all about...it was heaven. There was cubs playing around together while the rest of the pride lounged, with the occosiional lion venturing through the park. This was the best because when they wandered they would pass two feet from your face with only a sheet of glass and some steel separating you from them. The park was circular with roads scattered throughout. We must have driven the loop about thirty or fourty times and were definitely there the longest of any vehicles we seen enter. It isn’t hard to see how people get killed there because despite all of the signs saying not to open your windows there was people halfway out of their car. When we finally managed to drag ourselves out of park 1 we headed onto lion park 2,3 and 4. It was neat because, although, we didn’t stay as long in each new park all of the lions were different in size and color.
Although, the lion park was great, what almost matched it was playing with the lion cubs. Playing with the lion cubs was so neat. We weren’t allowed to pick them up because there was so many people there to see them but we got to enter their den with about ten others and take pictures with them and just fool around. Trying to take pictures at first was a little difficult because it was hard to pet them without feeling a bit timid. Although, they are just large cats there is something strange about trying to pet it and it snapping its jaws around to meet your hand (got a couple of good scared pics). They just wanted to play but who knows how far the playing would go. One of the fellow Canadians we met in line received a nice little gash from one of the cute little cubs. Fortunately for us one of the cubs loved our water bottle and so we let him play with it and we just followed him from the rest of the crowd. He loved it so much that when we tried to leave it followed us to the exit. They were so adorable.
After the lion park we went to teach ourselves about the South African culture at the Lesedi Cultural Village. There they took us through five of the original SA tribes and showed us some of their cultural practices such as common phrases, price for a wife (11 to 26 cows-trust us it is a lot of money), dances and how they came to be. Then they put on a dance with all of the tribes and sang it was pretty neat to see. Neat part is that they live there in the village with each tribe staying with their own. So we got to see two of the children (maybe 3 years old) joining in the dancing. The entertainment was followed by customary food including ox tail, crocodile and ostrich which we both tried. I (Jeremy) was a little fuller than Katie from eating a worm at one of the villages...delicious and tasted like salty beef jerky.
We bought some nice souvenirs and realized we are having a bit of time trying to convert from Rans to Canadian dollars in our heads (although it is just dividing by seven...damn calculators). We almost took one of the villagers home with us...don’t worry he was one of three year olds in the show. I think he fell in love with Katie because his grandma had to drag him away and then he still managed to sneak away and run after her. We left him with one of our extra Canadian patches so that he would remember us and he gave us a pose for the camera...well he more like just forced me to take a picture of him and then wanted to take the camera. On the way home we got a little taste of SA road rage as we accidentally left our brights on but managed to make it back to the hostel without missing a turn. I would have to say (again) that I am so glad that Katie is driving because where she is doing awesome I would be stalling every light and getting all sorts of African gestures we know nothing about. So...that has been our first two days...we will keep you posted on the events to come.
Miss and love you all!!!
Our hostel is quite nice minus the fact that it doesn’t truly look all that tidy in the toilets and rooms. It appears to have been a miniature castle in the past and has a beautiful courtyard with a view from the top that overlooks Joburg. After arriving we had a small rest and then decided that if we want to fight the jet lag we better just get on with it. So our first day here we went to a nearby mall then headed to the Joburg Zoo. One thing to note is that when driving here beware of the locals who sit at every intersection and at red lights try to sell you everything from Newspapers to sunglasses to car chargers and they seem to take it better if you just wave them off rather than ignoring them with the exception of a few who give you this look like you just let them down.
After seeing Saskatoon’s modest Zoo and a few others we decided that this Zoo was humungous. A full loop is over 10km and houses a large variety of animals...our first lion and elephant sighting but unfortunately the polar bears were not out for Katie. From the zoo we headed back to the mall picked up our new 3G card and decided it was time for bed...well Katie slept and I just fooled around on my camera for a few more hours.
After waking up from our extended sleep (Katie 17 hours and Jeremy 13) we headed out to the Lion Park. We managed to only get lost once (well kind of twice) on the way. Our journey to the park took us through our first slums. We were wondering why there were hundreds of people walking on what seemed to be deserted highways (don’t get us wrong exercise is good) until we noticed two very large slums just off the highway into the trees. It was pretty hard to see. The lion park was amazing...to our standards at this point. We drove our tiny little Hyandui Atos (maybe three feet in length with tires the size of basketballs) through the range. We didn’t see much excitement in the range until we got to the Lion Park #1 (yes there were four!). When we first drove into the lion park we thought to ourselves that it looked a little barren but that was until a large female lion crossed the road walking right in front of our car. The camera was out immediately and didn’t stop snapping for the rest of the day. After coming around the bend we ran into the male lion and what seemed to be one of his thirty female partners just lounging under a tree. We had arrived just after feeding time so the pride was scattered around ripping away meat from carcasses of who knows what. There was lions wandering all about...it was heaven. There was cubs playing around together while the rest of the pride lounged, with the occosiional lion venturing through the park. This was the best because when they wandered they would pass two feet from your face with only a sheet of glass and some steel separating you from them. The park was circular with roads scattered throughout. We must have driven the loop about thirty or fourty times and were definitely there the longest of any vehicles we seen enter. It isn’t hard to see how people get killed there because despite all of the signs saying not to open your windows there was people halfway out of their car. When we finally managed to drag ourselves out of park 1 we headed onto lion park 2,3 and 4. It was neat because, although, we didn’t stay as long in each new park all of the lions were different in size and color.
Although, the lion park was great, what almost matched it was playing with the lion cubs. Playing with the lion cubs was so neat. We weren’t allowed to pick them up because there was so many people there to see them but we got to enter their den with about ten others and take pictures with them and just fool around. Trying to take pictures at first was a little difficult because it was hard to pet them without feeling a bit timid. Although, they are just large cats there is something strange about trying to pet it and it snapping its jaws around to meet your hand (got a couple of good scared pics). They just wanted to play but who knows how far the playing would go. One of the fellow Canadians we met in line received a nice little gash from one of the cute little cubs. Fortunately for us one of the cubs loved our water bottle and so we let him play with it and we just followed him from the rest of the crowd. He loved it so much that when we tried to leave it followed us to the exit. They were so adorable.
After the lion park we went to teach ourselves about the South African culture at the Lesedi Cultural Village. There they took us through five of the original SA tribes and showed us some of their cultural practices such as common phrases, price for a wife (11 to 26 cows-trust us it is a lot of money), dances and how they came to be. Then they put on a dance with all of the tribes and sang it was pretty neat to see. Neat part is that they live there in the village with each tribe staying with their own. So we got to see two of the children (maybe 3 years old) joining in the dancing. The entertainment was followed by customary food including ox tail, crocodile and ostrich which we both tried. I (Jeremy) was a little fuller than Katie from eating a worm at one of the villages...delicious and tasted like salty beef jerky.
We bought some nice souvenirs and realized we are having a bit of time trying to convert from Rans to Canadian dollars in our heads (although it is just dividing by seven...damn calculators). We almost took one of the villagers home with us...don’t worry he was one of three year olds in the show. I think he fell in love with Katie because his grandma had to drag him away and then he still managed to sneak away and run after her. We left him with one of our extra Canadian patches so that he would remember us and he gave us a pose for the camera...well he more like just forced me to take a picture of him and then wanted to take the camera. On the way home we got a little taste of SA road rage as we accidentally left our brights on but managed to make it back to the hostel without missing a turn. I would have to say (again) that I am so glad that Katie is driving because where she is doing awesome I would be stalling every light and getting all sorts of African gestures we know nothing about. So...that has been our first two days...we will keep you posted on the events to come.
Miss and love you all!!!
We HEART NYC!!!!!
After rushing through the city and checking into our hotel (a place called Woo Go Studio’s – so cute and we highly recommend it to anyone thinking of venturing to the big city) we headed to Broadway to take in The Lion King in Times Square. It was a fantastic way to prepare for our journey as the show had elephants, lions, giraffes, hyenas (and of course, Simba, Nala and Zazu too!).
The following day, we had lunch at a cute little restaurant a block from our hotel called Gigi’s. The assortment was endless, price was decent and the service was awesome (something you don’t find everyday) AND...they had free internet – Jeremy and I were in heaven. After lunch, we took the ferry and checked out the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We found out that the Statue is made out of Copper and that it was a gift of peace from the French. The Americans did not know how they were going to support the structure and were considering displaying only the head and arm. The French refused this idea and so the Americans held a competition to see who could come up with the best design for the statue. Eiffel, who later designed the Eiffel Tower, won the show and hence, that is how the Statue of Liberty was constructed.
Our next stop on the ferry was Ellis Island – a very important part of history where 1/3 or Americans can trace their history back and where the multiculturalism of America began.
We finished off our day with checking out the World Trade Center Memorial. This was a very interesting exhibit to see and was extremely saddening but something everyone should be exposed to. The display cases held plane windows that were recovered from the wreckage, twisted steel beams and members, and torn and cut up fireman uniforms. One of the saddest parts was the statements from bystanders and those from people who had lost one or multiple loved ones in the disaster or in the rescue efforts. It was a very emotional part of our trip.
On our last day, we had breakfast at Gigi’s again (SOOOO good!!!) then headed to the Empire State Building. It was a fairly cold day so we did not have to wait in any lines (the staff told us in the summer and holidays, you can wait anywhere up to 3 hours). The view from atop was unbelievable. Everyone knows that New York is big, but until you are up there looking into the distance and still cannot see the end of the skyscrapers against the horizon, you cannot grasp just how truly BIG it is. From our view top on the 86th floor, all we could keep thinking to ourselves was soon enough, we will be bungee jumping from the same height in South Africa on the world’s HIGHEST bungee jump. We will have to see if we go through with it, I felt nauseous just being up there. An interesting fact about the Empire State – The construction of the building was done in a mere 14 months!! We were told that in some days (must have been extremely good days) they would build one level a day – I guess you have to keep in mind that there safety standards at that time were non-existent. Also, it was the city’s largest building for ~40 years until the construction of the twin towers. After the Empire State, we headed to the Brooklyn Bridge. We stopped to buy a $3 hot dog from a vendor...the vendor looked a little worse for wear and after I (Katie) had paid him the money, I noticed (since it was really cold out) that he had snot dripping from his nose onto the counter. We were hungry, so we ate it (and it was very delicious) but we are not sure that this is something we would do again. Diana and Nicole, you would laugh to know that this tiny little hot dog’s ketchup and mustard spilt all over my jacket. I of course did not notice this until I noticed a big glob on my arm and then noticed a big glob on my pants...what a mess! We finished off out trip in NYC in the Financial District and took some cute photos with the famous BULL. We headed back to Times Square where we ate at Buba Gumps then rushed to the airport to catch our plane.
Overall, we had an awesome time in NYC and would love to go back again – any takers??? This time, I (Katie) will definitely have to spend a little bit more time shopping, which, I so wanted to do, but just couldn’t!
Africa, here we come...we just have to get through the next 26 hours of flight. Ta Ta For Now. Much Love!!! xoxoxooxoxxooxox
Links for pics are on the left hand side of the website.
Sorry it took so long to get these up but it has been hard to get internet access and crazy busy.
The following day, we had lunch at a cute little restaurant a block from our hotel called Gigi’s. The assortment was endless, price was decent and the service was awesome (something you don’t find everyday) AND...they had free internet – Jeremy and I were in heaven. After lunch, we took the ferry and checked out the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We found out that the Statue is made out of Copper and that it was a gift of peace from the French. The Americans did not know how they were going to support the structure and were considering displaying only the head and arm. The French refused this idea and so the Americans held a competition to see who could come up with the best design for the statue. Eiffel, who later designed the Eiffel Tower, won the show and hence, that is how the Statue of Liberty was constructed.
Our next stop on the ferry was Ellis Island – a very important part of history where 1/3 or Americans can trace their history back and where the multiculturalism of America began.
We finished off our day with checking out the World Trade Center Memorial. This was a very interesting exhibit to see and was extremely saddening but something everyone should be exposed to. The display cases held plane windows that were recovered from the wreckage, twisted steel beams and members, and torn and cut up fireman uniforms. One of the saddest parts was the statements from bystanders and those from people who had lost one or multiple loved ones in the disaster or in the rescue efforts. It was a very emotional part of our trip.
On our last day, we had breakfast at Gigi’s again (SOOOO good!!!) then headed to the Empire State Building. It was a fairly cold day so we did not have to wait in any lines (the staff told us in the summer and holidays, you can wait anywhere up to 3 hours). The view from atop was unbelievable. Everyone knows that New York is big, but until you are up there looking into the distance and still cannot see the end of the skyscrapers against the horizon, you cannot grasp just how truly BIG it is. From our view top on the 86th floor, all we could keep thinking to ourselves was soon enough, we will be bungee jumping from the same height in South Africa on the world’s HIGHEST bungee jump. We will have to see if we go through with it, I felt nauseous just being up there. An interesting fact about the Empire State – The construction of the building was done in a mere 14 months!! We were told that in some days (must have been extremely good days) they would build one level a day – I guess you have to keep in mind that there safety standards at that time were non-existent. Also, it was the city’s largest building for ~40 years until the construction of the twin towers. After the Empire State, we headed to the Brooklyn Bridge. We stopped to buy a $3 hot dog from a vendor...the vendor looked a little worse for wear and after I (Katie) had paid him the money, I noticed (since it was really cold out) that he had snot dripping from his nose onto the counter. We were hungry, so we ate it (and it was very delicious) but we are not sure that this is something we would do again. Diana and Nicole, you would laugh to know that this tiny little hot dog’s ketchup and mustard spilt all over my jacket. I of course did not notice this until I noticed a big glob on my arm and then noticed a big glob on my pants...what a mess! We finished off out trip in NYC in the Financial District and took some cute photos with the famous BULL. We headed back to Times Square where we ate at Buba Gumps then rushed to the airport to catch our plane.
Overall, we had an awesome time in NYC and would love to go back again – any takers??? This time, I (Katie) will definitely have to spend a little bit more time shopping, which, I so wanted to do, but just couldn’t!
Africa, here we come...we just have to get through the next 26 hours of flight. Ta Ta For Now. Much Love!!! xoxoxooxoxxooxox
Links for pics are on the left hand side of the website.
Sorry it took so long to get these up but it has been hard to get internet access and crazy busy.
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